In this article, the authors discuss a pedagogical approach that connects the cultural aspects of mathematics with its academic aspects in which they refer to as ethnomodeling. Ethnomodeling is the process of translation and elaboration of problems and questions taken from systems that are part of the daily life of the members of any given cultural group. Here, the authors offer an alternative goal for research, which is the acquisition of both emic and etic forms of knowledge for the implementation of ethnomodeling. They also offer a third perspective on ethnomodeling research, which is the dialectical approach, which makes use of both emic and etic knowledge. Finally, the authors define ethnomodeling as the study of mathematical phenomena within a culture because it is a social construct and culturally bound.